Apical sealing quality of in vitro apicectomy procedures after using both Er:YAG and Nd:YAG

Leonardi, D.P. et al.
Photomedicine and Laser Surgery,2010; 28(SUPPL. 2), pp.S63–S67.

Background:

The aim of this study was to evaluate the apical sealing of dentinal tubules after root-end surface cutting by using Er:YAG and Nd:YAG lasers.

Materials and methods:

After root-canal instrumentation and filling, apices of 50 extracted maxillary canine human teeth were resected by Er:YAG with 400 mJ, 10 Hz, for 30 sec. The samples were randomly assigned to five groups (n = 10): (GI) treated without root-end cavity, but with Nd:YAG (1.0 W, 10 Hz, 20 sec) for dentinal tubules sealing; (GII) treated with root-end cavity without the use of Nd:YAG; (GIII) treated with root-end cavity and Nd:YAG application; (GIV) treated with root-end cavity made by Er:YAG with no focus and without Nd:YAG application; and (GV) treated without root-end cavity and without Nd:YAG application. The root-end cavities were performed by using Er:YAG at 300 mJ, 10 Hz, for 20 sec. Subsequently, all teeth were waterproofed and immersed in 2% methylene blue for 48 h in a vacuum environment. The samples were longitudinally sectioned, and microleakage was measured.

Results:

ANOVA and the Fisher LSD test showed that GIV was less susceptible to microleakage than were the other groups (p < 0.05). Interestingly, the use of the Er:YAG with no focus showed superior dentinal tubule sealing in comparison with the other groups, even with or without root-end cavity and Nd:YAG application.

Apical sealing quality of in vitro apicectomy procedures after using both Er:YAG and Nd:YAG